Kristine Oustrup Laureijs meets Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mohammad Yunus at Social Business Week, organised by the Grameen Creative Lab@NUS.
The concept of Social Business
With the idea of social business, Prof. Muhammad Yunus has introduced a new dimension for capitalism: a business model that does not strive to maximize profits but rather to serve humanity’s most pressing needs. In contrast to traditional charitable activities, a social business aims to tackle one or more social problems in a financially self-sustainable way.
While investors may be able to receive their investment amount back, all additional profits will remain within the social business to further address and tackle the underlying social problems. Purpose of the investment is purely to achieve one or more social objectives through the operations of the company; the investors seek no personal gain.
A Social Business, as defined by Prof. Yunus, is an innovative approach to tackle the big social and environmental challenges of our times. It is a powerful tool to create a world of three zeroes: zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions.